surfacepatterns

The game is mostly amazing. The combat is mostly satisfying, the graphics are fantastic, the story is compelling, the main character is fantastic, and the first half of the game is, in general, on point. However, in the second half of the game, bugs start popping up. Like, a lot. I haven't run into anything game-breaking per se, but many of the bugs mess with my immersion. A couple examples: * Sometimes you'll hear dialogue from enemies you've already killed from afar when you reach a position that's close to where the enemy was positioned. There will be no one around (I snipe quite a bit) to say whatever you're hearing, but there's the audio anyway. * Sometimes, in a certain zone, enemies will reset and heal all their damage, or will disappear and re-spawn in their original areas, if you run just a little too far. I mean, an enemy can be two steps behind you, and if you run just a little too far from where the enemy spawned, the enemy will just disappear into thin air. You'll come back to the zone, and all of the enemies you killed there previously will be alive again. *Irritating*. * If the game crashes before a "boss fight" is about to start and reloads right at the start of the boss fight, then all of the traps that you setup will no longer be setup, and they'll be missing from your inventory. You get to proceed with the boss fight without your careful planning. One area in particular was full of bugs. It's like the QA team just didn't bother testing the area. I won't say what that area is here because this review is meant to be spoiler-free. Overall, the game is still really awesome. However, these bugs are kind of eating away at my fun. I hope this review doesn't turn into a 7 or 6 by the time I'm done with the game (the game says I'm 71.54% through currently). We'll see.

Dex is a 2-D side-scrolling sci-fi RPG. Pros: * I was able to determine quite quickly that I didn't like Dex. * The beginning of the story seems intriguing. I wasn't motivated to play too far into the game, so I can't comment on how it evolves. * The skills seem interesting, I suppose. Cons: * The voice acting is awful. * The dialogue is awful. * The controls are unintuitive, and can't be re-mapped. * Sometimes, it looks like there's a floor to walk on when there really isn't, resulting in rather frustrating deaths. I'm tired of the game after just a few hours. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone.

Brut@l is a procedurally generated, realtime, isometric dungeon crawler with an artistic style that makes liberal use of the ASCII character set in its graphical models. It is styled after old school turn-based ASCII roguelikes like Rogue and Nethack, though its realtime nature makes the play very different from the aforementioned roguelikes. Pros: * The controls are simple, straightforward, and relatively precise. * The combat is surprisingly satisfying, given its simplistic nature. * The game didn't crash once. * The worst bug I noticed was a trophy not unlocking; specifically, when I realized I was going to win, I made sure to drink one type of each potion in order to unlock the trophy linked to doing just that. The trophy didn't unlock. * The combinations of creatures you find in different rooms can make for challenging combat. * Most of the dungeon is black and white. Surprisingly, this is quite advantageous, as the things that are colored (lava, water, poison, etc.) *really* stand out. * Unlike most trailers, watching the Brut@l gameplay trailers will give you a *really* good idea of how the game works, and what to expect from the game. The trailers don't oversell Brut@l at all. * The ending I saw is simple, but a little surprising and fun. I don't know if there's more than one ending. * The procedural generation was quite good. There's certainly some re-use of rooms and such (maze rooms, rooms with platforms surrounded by water or lava, etc.), but it never felt old. Cons: * The AI is simple-minded. Creatures will proceed toward you using the shortest possible path. If there is no path to you (say, because there's a chasm between you and the creature), then the creature will stand as close to you as possible while you shoot it with arrows or zap it with wands. Not as bad as Necropolis, to be sure, but still pretty bad. Hopefully, they'll address the AI in an update. * This game likely wasn't tested well by patient gamers. If you're patient and careful (say, if you've played enough Souls games), you might beat the game on your first try (I did). * I had a difficult time getting used to aiming arrows. The other missile-type weapons/devices were easier to aim for some reason. I think it's because once you ready the arrow, the direction of your aim is fixed, regardless of whether or not you move around before loosing the arrow. * The skill paths make no sense. There are some skills that have prerequisites that make absolutely no sense. * Towards the end game, your character class won't matter because all character classes have the same skill paths. The character class only determines what skills you start with. * No NG+, or difficulty settings. My playthrough was approximately 10-11 hours of game time. I've read other reviews that suggest a playthrough can be finished in 3-4 hours. After my playthrough, I can say that I feel quite satisfied. I can see myself trying a second playthrough in a week or so. I haven't tried the local co-op, but intend to soon.

I picked this up on a whim, despite the mixed reviews, and found an underrated game that is absolutely elegant in its simplicity. Here are the basics: * One button makes your character do a quick dive (no i-frames). Holding it down moves you a little faster than usual. * One button shoots an arrow, and, once you've shot the arrow, allows you to make the arrow gravitate back to you at a fairly fast rate. * You only have one arrow. * If you get hit, you die. * The main gameplay is boss fights. Most involve solving some sort of puzzle to figure out how to kill the boss, using your arrow and/or the environment. That's the basics. It's a little like Shadow of the Colossus, except with a 2-D overhead view. Don't be fooled into thinking that this makes the game easy in any way, shape, or form. Without revealing details of any of the fights, suffice to say that the game designers have created some very interesting and difficult boss fights, some of which rival some of the more interesting Souls game boss fights. Some reviewers mock this game for its 2-D overhead view and it's simple graphics. If these are things you absolutely cannot stand, then this is a game you should take a pass on. However, if you enjoy challenging gameplay where your victories are thoroughly satisfying (think Souls games), then you should really pick this game up.

I read a critical review for Necropolis that said, in part, that Necropolis suffers from "a crisis of variety". I find that particular phrase provides a lot of insight into Necropolis. Some examples: * Once I found a combat style I was comfortable with, I was able to get through the entire game with that combat style. Nearly every enemy fell for it because the AI (or lack thereof) is completely predictable. * The visuals in the first seven levels are the same with slightly different colors. * I saw *so* many Tier 0 and 1 weapons and armor dropped by enemies that I eventually just stopped checking, knowing that the chests and shopkeepers were much more likely to have better weapons and armor. * The item descriptions all try to be witty in some fashion. Some of the descriptions *are* actually funny, but most of the humor isn't effective because there's *so* much of it. Same with the quips by the "narrator", and the scrawling on the walls. The combat is Souls-ish, I guess. The buttons mostly do what you'd expect if you've played a Souls game. However, the combat should have been way better. Demon's Souls came out in 2009, and had (and still has) some of the most amazing combat to ever appear in a video game. For a game that openly claims Souls influence, Necropolis could of (and should of) done a lot better in this department, especially given the four (or five, if you also include Dark Souls 2) fantastic From Software games that do combat well. A lot of players claim this game is difficult. It's not. I did a solo play-through, and not once was I in danger of dying. If you find the game difficult, either you're too impatient, or your play-through was *drastically* different than my play-through. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the Souls games. The AI is awful. Enemies sometimes get stuck on objects and just run in place. Enemies at slightly higher elevations than you won't come down to fight you. Sometimes, enemies turn their back on you and forget that you're there, even if you zap them with a wand multiple times. Most enemies have one or two attacks, neither of which changes what you might do to evade whatever enemy you happen to be fighting. You can get enemies to hit each other easily, and that's not even including the fact that some enemies will go out of their way to fight other enemies. The last fight in the game is disappointing. I can't say much about the last fight without spoiling the game for others, so I'll just leave it at that. The 10th level isn't a level. Pretending it's a level is an insult to the players. The game froze six or seven times during my play-through. I played the game on a Mac. I don't know if that's a factor or not. There was nothing I could pick out that caused the game to freeze. It seemed to freeze under a variety of circumstances. I expect the developers will fix those freezes in future patches. Not everything about Necropolis was bad; otherwise, I wouldn't have played through the entire 18-hour play-through. I tend to like games that have Souls-like qualities, and this had enough Souls-like qualities to keep me interested. I almost quit during levels six and seven, but level eight was different enough that I was able to persevere until the end. I'm glad I persevered, but not glad enough to recommend this game to anyone.

'Enter the Gungeon' would be a fantastic game if it weren't for one awful game mechanic, that being that there is always a slight margin of error when aiming your gun, meaning that if you shoot five bullets while holding the right stick in the same direction, those five bullets will go slightly different directions. That mechanic might be fine for a game that's meant to mirror reality to some extent, but, for a skill-based, bullet hell, dungeon crawler, it's an absolute game-breaker. (Note that this mechanic is independent of the "Aim Assist" feature. It happens regardless of the level of "Aim Assist" you select.) For the most part, the other parts of the game are solid. I love the artistic style, the gun puns, the bosses (well, the six or so that I fought), the subtle nods to other games (e.g. the guy that's like the Crestfallen Warrior at the entrance to the tutorial level), and the amount of challenge, which would be just right if I could just aim my bullets correctly. For those that haven't played the game yet, just imagine how frustrating it would be to try to play 'The Binding of Isaac' if your tears were always shot in slightly different directions then you intended.

Many of the reviewers are identifying this game as a 2-D 'Dark Souls'. I can't fault them, as the developers themselves embrace the influence of the Souls games. The problem is that calling this game a 2-D 'Dark Souls' only addresses a portion of what the game has to offer. While this game liberally steals many aspects of the Souls formula, the gameplay feels much more like 'Castlevania: Symphony of the Night' than any Souls game, and the exploration feels more like 'Metroid' and 'Super Metroid'. Throw in the Ska Studios signature design style, and you've got one hell ****.